IIITB Hosts Automotive Workshop

BENGALURU:
Automotive software has currently reached astounding levels of complexity prompting automotive OEMs and their suppliers to manage a complex supply chain of semiconductors, electronics, software and systems. Entering this space and ushering in digital transformation of the automotive industry is SIG Automotive, a special interest group in IIIT Bangalore that focuses on issues of software engineering, e-mobility and sustainability in automobiles of tomorrow. The research initiated by the Group focuses on creating processes, operations, tools to develop safe cyber secure adaptive automotive grade software-intensive systems.

Given that sustainability is a key factor in any system and more so in software solutions, SIG Automotive hosted a workshop on Automotive Software and Sustainability, bringing together leading players from academia and industry on a platform to exchange ideas and thoughts on the above topics. The workshop, hosted at International Institute of Information Technology (IIITB), focused on software, E/E, e-mobility and sustainability, with presentations and panel discussions on a range of topics veering around software and sustainability. This workshop was co-convened by Prof. Roland Erik Haas and Prof. Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti, who are leading SIG Automotive at IIITB.

Leading industry participation
The workshop also included breakout sessions on education, technology transfer, the trends and challenges involved. With over 50 participants, the free workshop had leading industry presence starting from Daimler, Ashok Leyland and MathWorks. The conference was sponsored by Infineon Technologies, a world leader in semiconductors.

Speaking on the confluence, Prof. Roland Erik Haas, IIITB said, “The focus of the workshop is on software, E/E, e-mobility and sustainable solutions. Active interactions between the participants from academia and industry was facilitated through various presentations and panel discussions. The breakout sessions on complementary topics of education, technology transfer, the various challenges involved in the same further elicit robust discussions amongst participants.”

Researching into next generation battery operated vehicles
SIG Automotive is into an important area of research involving battery electric vehicles (BEV) to bring in sustainable mobility. This is all the more relevant with many countries having passed laws to ban internal combustion engine (ICE) within the next two decades. Research explored in this segment relates to electric drive technologies, battery systems, battery and power management, charging and smart grid connectivity.